In modern buildings, prefabricated room partitions, particularly for rooms designed for office use, as well as false ceilings, are known to be critical elements for adequate acoustic, thermal and visual insulation.
The use of false ceilings allows concealment of the cables and pipes that are used for serving the equipment required for adequate comfort of the room.
In practice, the false ceiling delimits a service interspace, which may receive power circuits, heating or air-conditioning pipes, cables for data transfer, telephony and all equipment required for proper operation of service and/or safety apparatus.
Typically, the false ceiling consists of a modular system having a plurality of supporting beams which define a truss having two horizontal rows, with covering panels or plates anchored thereto.
The false ceiling may also be fitted with service devices such as lamps, fire or emergency systems, as well as prefabricated or glazed walls if the available space has to be divided into two or more rooms.
A number of solutions have been known in the art for providing false ceilings and partitioning industrial buildings, which particularly include bearing beams associated with a functional service element, such as a lamp a sound device, a partition and the like.
GB547807 discloses a false ceiling supporting beam having a tubular portion for cables and pipes serving various types of equipment. The beam further has a lower T-shaped part projecting from the floor slab for mounting false ceiling panels thereto.
FR2745316 discloses a downwardly open U-shaped channel beam, which is designed to hold a functional accessory or element therein.
Panels are mounted using two additional support brackets, which are secured or laid onto the beam at its top wall.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,411,116 discloses a downwardly open U-shaped channel beam having grooves and projections for connection with transverse spacers and grooves and projections for supporting electric lines, pipes or other devices.
GB1447050 discloses a tubular channel beam designed to be secured to a floor slab by hangers and open at the bottom for receiving a second upwardly open U-shaped element, which is designed to hold a functional element.
This second element further has a pair of outwardly projecting side tabs for supporting the false ceiling panels.
GB1447050 discloses lighting fixtures integrated in the false ceiling by a ventilation channel beam with a first element laterally supporting a false ceiling panel supporting profile by adjustable screw means.
A second element is supported in the compartment defined by the first element, which second element defines a lighting device holding compartment.
A similar solution is also known from Italian patent application TV2005A000185, by the applicant hereof, in which a first element designed to be anchored to the floor slab is inserted in a second element, with panels being attached to the side ends thereof.
Nevertheless, all prior art solutions suffer from the common drawback of contributing to form a false ceiling which will be generally formed of a plurality of panels with the bearing beams projecting therefrom in a more or less visible manner.
Thus, the construction so obtained will have a lower aesthetic quality, caused by discontinuities in the false ceiling.
Furthermore, prior art solutions provide relatively complex structures with a great number of components, requiring long and difficult assembly procedures and heavier structures, with a difficult maintenance.
Another important drawback is that prior art systems have relatively low or no versatility, and provide a limited opportunity of remodulating room partitioning to adapt rooms to new or different uses.